Cambodia in 1997

Head of government: First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh, assisted by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen

When two men became prime ministers of Cambodia after the United Nations-organized 1993 elections, many people assumed the worst. The two, Hun Sen (seeBIOGRAPHIES) and Prince Norodom Ranariddh, were unlikely partners. First Prime Minister Ranariddh, son of King Norodom Sihanouk and the elected victor, was an ineffectual leader with little authority. Second Prime Minister Hun Sen bullied his way into power when his party lost but was by far the stronger leader.

For three years the coleaders kept their mutual antipathy in check, but by 1997 relations between them were increasingly tense. The stage was set for a showdown that would pitch Cambodia toward civil war and put in doubt the future of democracy there. Early in the year there were reports that soldiers loyal to each man were stockpiling arms. In March a grenade attack on a political rally organized by the opposition killed 19 people. Hun Sen denied having ordered the attack.

The conflict was then intensified by the efforts of both Hun Sen and Ranariddh to enlist the Khmer Rouge guerrillas as allies. While the Khmer Rouge were still vilified for their genocidal 1975-79 rule, they continued to wield power in gem-mining regions of Cambodia. By wooing the guerrillas, each man hoped to boost his fighting strength and his chances in the elections scheduled for 1998. Moreover, whoever engineered the collapse of the guerrilla group would surely win national and international applause.

When Ranariddh began negotiating with Khmer Rouge factions in the spring of 1997, Hun Sen accused his co-prime minister of illegally and unilaterally making a devil’s pact with the enemy. In June Ranariddh announced that the Khmer Rouge was in its death throes and that its notorious leader, Pol Pot, was on the run from a breakaway Khmer Rouge faction. (Few believed this until August, when Pol Pot was sentenced to life in prison at a jungle trial held by his erstwhile followers.) In October Pol Pot was interviewed in prison and expressed no remorse for his role in the Khmer Rouge rule; he also stated that the genocide figures had been exaggerated.

In June soldiers loyal to Hun Sen and those loyal to Ranariddh traded fire in downtown Phnom Penh; four of Ranariddh’s men died in the exchange. The next month Hun Sen issued a warning that Khmer Rouge were massing in the capital. There was no proof of this, though Ranariddh’s chief of security had deployed former guerrillas to guard his boss’s residence. Hun Sen, however, used this as the pretext for making his move. All-out fighting erupted on July 5 near the international airport. By the time the shooting stopped 48 hours later, Ranariddh and many of his supporters had fled the country. Others were rounded up and allegedly tortured, and at least one was executed. Ranariddh’s forces retreated to western Cambodia and dug in for a battle with Hun Sen’s soldiers. Hun Sen appointed as first prime minister Ung Huot, a pliable member of Ranariddh’s party, a move grudgingly endorsed by Ranariddh’s father, King Sihanouk, who left Cambodia in October, saying he might never return. Hun Sen ordered Ranariddh’s arrest on charges of conspiracy with the Khmer Rouge and arms smuggling.

Hun Sen’s coup was awkward for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which had agreed in principle to expand its membership to include Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia. But with the latter verging on civil war, the seven existing members (Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and the Philippines) decided to postpone Cambodia’s entry. Hun Sen’s power grab was also problematic for the UN, which had spent $2 billion to bring peace and democracy to the country. In September, Hun Sen and Ranariddh appeared at the General Assembly to demand official recognition. The UN chose to leave Cambodia’s seat vacant for the year.

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